Automate a single process that can access both Salesforce data and
data that lives outside Salesforce. With Salesforce Connect external objects, you can create a
process or flow that can look up, create, or update data that’s stored in an external system.
Event processes, invocable processes, screen flows, and autolaunched flows all support external
objects. Because record-change processes don’t support external objects, start a process when a
platform event message is received.

Where: This change applies to Lightning Experience and Salesforce Classic. Salesforce
Connect is free for Developer Edition and available for an extra cost in Enterprise, Performance,
and Unlimited editions.

Why: For example, when an order is updated, a third-party order management system
publishes the platform event message for Order Status. When a process receives the event message,
the process matches the order reference number of an external order record with the order
reference number of the event message. This example assumes that the platform event and external
object are defined in your org.

When Salesforce data is modified in an event process, we need to start a new transaction before
we can update data outside Salesforce. Scheduled actions let us do just that. To update the
external data as soon as possible, set the schedule to 0 Hours from
now.

How: When you select an object for a process or a flow to access, the standard, custom,
and external objects are displayed as options.